“The times they are a-changin’,” sang Bob Dylan in 1964, and this is true today in 2021. You might have noticed how quickly we went from wearing masks, waiting for a vaccine and now to not wearing masks if you have been vaccinated. In less than 24 hours, Governor Mills changed the protocol going forward for indoor and outdoor gatherings, along with dropping masks altogether if you have been vaccinated. Quite honestly, the Board and I were not expecting this to happen this quickly, so, needless to say we have some decisions to make. We are having a board meeting on Tuesday, May 25, and will have some updated information for you in next week’s Heart Thoughts.
If you have thoughts you would like to share with us, please feel free to contact me. I am also asking for volunteers who are willing to take a Sunday a month for whatever the assignment might be. Until we know the protocols we will be putting into place, we won’t know what will be needed. We will continue to monitor the Maine CDC to see what additional information they provide.
This past Sunday was a beautiful day and having heard from some of you the message was impactful. It was focused on Practice 6 – Everything Is My Teacher from the book Living Originally by Rev. Robert Brumet.
The message opened with a short video trailer from an HBO documentary called The Weight of Gold. It focuses on Olympic athletes and how the life as an athlete doesn’t prepare them for life once they are through competing. They talk about the depression, emptiness, loneliness and a crisis in identity.
Their sole focus has been on winning and now the soul focus is on listening and uncovering the inner stirrings of their souls.
The definition of this practice, everything is my teacher is, “My experience with every person, place, object, event, and circumstance in my life is a potential teacher if I am open to the learning that is eventually revealed from within.”
There are two types of learning, conventional and deep. In order to move to the deep learning, we must be willing to surrender the ego to our higher self. We move from EGO to OEG:
Open – to be teachable, to know nothing, and to be present to our feelings, sensations, and thoughts.
Empty – to relinquish resistance, attachments, projections and more…
Guide – to allow wisdom from within to arise and guide you.
Brumet writes: “Life is our greatest teacher. Perhaps this is the reason we exist in physical form: to learn by experiencing life as it is. But when identified with the ego, we are not open to learning – we are more invested in promoting and protecting our personal beliefs and opinions. The ego is not open to truth; it wants to see and hear only that which protects and supports itself.”
To receive both the general practice and the formal practice, watch the service.
I will close with a poem from Jackson Kiddard
Anything that annoys you is for teaching you patience.
Anyone who abandons you is for teaching you how to stand up on your own two feet.
Anything that angers you is for teaching you forgiveness and compassion.
Anything that has power over you is for teaching you how to take your power back.
Anything you hate is for teaching you unconditional love.
Anything you fear is for teaching you courage to overcome your fear.
Anything you can’t control is for teaching you how to let go and trust the Universe.
Listen to Robert Brumet’s meditation for this practice here.
Next week will be Dancing with Chaos.
You are a blessing in my life,
Rev. Patricia Bessey
